Start Over On Monday
by sugarfrosted
Summary: It's been years since Quinn Fabray has been back in Lima, Ohio.  AU Futurefic with a dab of Quinn/Finn. Complete.


**Start Over On Monday**  
by sugarfrosted

**It's been years since Quinn has been back in Lima.  
Futurefic, slight Quinn/Finn. Unbeta'ed, all errors are mine.**

**disclaimer: Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy, i just play in his sandbox.**

comments are appreciated, but please do not ask me to continue, the story is complete. xx

* * *

It's been years since Quinn's been back in Lima; being a registered nurse means she's been worked in hospitals and clinics all over the country and she's taking advantage of some free days in between her transfer from Chicago to Philadelphia to visit her mother and stepfather. Quinn hasn't kept in touch with her father; he had left Lima shortly after the divorce and the last thing she vaguely remembers about his whereabouts was that he was somewhere in Tuscaloosa or some other city with an odd name.

Judy remarried an English professor at Ohio State twelve years ago; they've been happily married ever since, even giving Quinn and Gwen a little brother to spoil. Gwen sometimes still ribs Quinn over giving her baby up for adoption, but both sisters know that there had been too much going on at the time for them to realistically give Beth a good home and that the adoption was for the best. She's not going to lie; sometimes she does entertain thoughts of seeking Beth out and see how her daughter has been doing, but it would just be too awkward to accomplish and she's grown to not like confrontation.

Quinn pulls into the driveway of her stepfather's house; it's a bit larger than what Quinn and Gwen grew up with, but it has a huge backyard with a pool and basketball court for Mikey to play with. One she steps inside the house, she hugs her mother, stepfather and little brother; she even gives Mikey a new basketball to destroy. She spends some time catching up with her mother and Gwen even comes over for dinner to catch up with her little sister.

The next day she's about to head to the grocery store when her car dies in the driveway. Quinn kicks it in frustration and Gwen offers to help her get it to a mechanic's garage. She drops Quinn off because she's running late for work and her boss only gave her a 30 minute grace period before she gets told to stay behind another hour to make up for the lost time. Gwen has a love-hate relationship with her job at the courthouse, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Quinn waits patiently outside the garage for the mechanic so that they can fetch her dead car; her eyes widen in surprise when the mechanic walks out to greet her. "Finn?"

* * *

Finn blinks in surprise when he sees Quinn Fabray standing there outside of his garage. "Uh...hey Quinn," he mumbles in surprise. He hasn't seen her in years and she still looks as beautiful as ever. "It's been a long time."

"...Yeah, it has," she stammers before jerking her thumb in the direction of the street. "My car died in my mom's driveway and I need to get it fixed."

"Oh, yeah of course," He motions for Quinn to follow him and they get into his truck. Aside from the directions she gives to her stepfather's house, the ride is quiet and awkward. Quinn finds herself glancing over at Finn every five minutes; his appearance hasn't really changed all that much since high school except for about ten extra pounds, a five o'clock shadow, and random blotches of grease on his face and jumpsuit. Finn, bless him, hasn't noticed that she's been looking at him.

They arrive at the house and after latching her car to his truck, they head back to his garage. She waits outside the garage as he inspects what went wrong with her car. Fifteen minutes later, Finn meets her outside. "Well, it'll be about two or three days before your car's ready because I found a lot of problems with it. When's the last time you got it checked?"

Quinn runs through her memory and comes up blank. "Honestly? I don't remember." Finn blinks at her response. "Sorry. It's just that I'm so busy that it never occurred to me to get my car looked at."

He chuckles and smiles at her. "Hey, it's totally understandable. But yeah, it'll be about three days until I can get it fixed up for you again."

"Oh, that's okay; I got a couple of days here before I leave for Philly."

"Philly?" Finn's expression turns curious. "Wow."

"Yeah, it's for work and I thought I'd take some free time to come by Lima to visit my mom and stepdad."

"Cool," Finn nods before an awkward silence hangs over them. "Um...you know, if you're not busy tonight, Quinn...do you want to go out for some coffee?"

She's taken aback a bit by his question, but smiles and accepts his offer. "Sure, why not?" She always did like the way Finn smiled.

* * *

Quinn waits for Finn to show up outside of the Starbucks that they agreed on and cracks her knuckles in nervousness; she's not entirely sure how tonight will play out even though it's been years since they had last talked to each other before today. She had lost contact with everyone she knew in high school when she moved to Penn for nursing school and got caught up with school and college life and by the time she had her first nursing job, she had a whole new life going for her.

Before she could get even more neurotic about herself and her life, Finn shows up. He looks much cleaner than he did a few hours ago and she grins at him. They order their coffees and sit across each other in a booth.

"So…" Finn starts nervously. "Um…how have you been?"

"Good, good," she replies. "I'm a nurse and I've been so busy with work that coming back to Lima's a great break from moving to Philly. So…um, what about you, Finn? You're running your own garage now?"

"Yeah," he sheepishly replies, rubbing the back of his head. "But I still think of it as Burt's garage, even though he signed it over to me when he retired. Kurt didn't like that at first but he's cool with it now; Mom looks after Burt and I take care of the garage while he's in New York."

"What does he do in New York?" she asks. Quinn vaguely remembered that Kurt had gleefully announced he'd been accepted to a New York school but she didn't exactly remember the details.

"I think he said something about going between making costumes and acting," Finn's nose scrunches up as he tries to remember the last time Kurt had visited. "I kind of don't remember what he said last time."

"At least you know he's doing well in New York," she replies. "What does Rachel have to say about you and your garage?"

Finn looks at her in confusion. "Rachel? I haven't seen her since after we left high school, Quinn."

Now it's Quinn's turn to be confused. "I thought you two were still together. I didn't know you guys broke up."

"Umm… it was kind of hard to maintain a relationship when she was going off to New York too and wanted me to come along with her," he replied. "But I couldn't leave Mom and Burt behind because Kurt was already going off to New York and I promised him Mom and I would take care of Burt 'cause we're brothers. And you know me, I sucked at school."

She chuckles a bit. "Yeah, you always did need me to help you with your homework. But you seem really happy at the garage."

"I am," he grins. "I get to fix cars and get dirty and work my own hours and everything."

* * *

They spend some more time talking about what they've accomplished in the years that have passed since they were high school until they ran out of subject material to talk about and an awkward pause hangs over them again.

Quinn coughs as the question pops up in her mind. "Um….Finn?" she asks and glances down at her coffee and then back at Finn's face. "Are…are you still single?"

Finn blinks. "Me? Um…." He goes quiet as he tries to think of a not-lame way to say yeah, he's single but fails. "Yeah, I am. I mean, the garage doesn't leave me a lot of time to date and stuff." He had tried to maintain a long-distance relationship with Rachel in the beginning of her freshman year at Julliard, but he found the distance too difficult to maintain and the fact that Rachel was so determined to be a star that he opted to break up with her so that she could focus.

To say the least, Rachel had been pissed off beyond belief when Finn had decided to break it off in their final phone conversation. Since he had never really heard from her again, he assumed that she eventually moved on, like he did.

Quinn only nods quietly. "Me too, actually," she replies. "Nursing doesn't really allow for a lot of free time to date." She glances away from Finn and drinks her coffee. They remain awkwardly silent for a few more minutes as they drink and completely deny that even as adults, they just made themselves look the slightest bit foolish.

"Quinn…" Finn began as he put his now empty coffee cup down onto the table. "We're friends, right?"

"I guess so, yeah," she admits. Even though the relationships with him and with Puck eventually ended and she would date other guys through college, the fact that she and Finn at least are able to have a friendly conversation at least counts for something. "I think that while we didn't work out in high school for the most obvious reasons, you've been nothing but a great friend," Quinn smiles. "Being friends is better than being enemies."

Finn chuckles and starts to ask about the different places she's been to because of her job and their mood picks up again when they resume talking about their lives that don't involve dating. Quinn learns that Finn's favorite cars to fix are the classic muscle cars and that he hopes to own one himself one day but will settle for a nice pickup truck. He's in irregular contact with his stepbrother due to Kurt's busy life, but he always makes sure to tell Kurt to come home for a visit once in a while.

She tells him that she loved working in Chicago and Portland and hated Scottsdale and Corpus Christi; her transfer from Chicago to Philadelphia was because Penn's teaching hospital needed some nurses and she volunteered because Penn was her alma mater and she could always go back to Chicago at a later time. Because Lima was right in the middle of her transfer route to Philly, Quinn had chosen to spend a few free days with her family before picking up the pace again; her car had apparently better ideas on how to spend time in Lima.

* * *

It's not until the baristas tell them that they're closing soon that they finally leave and he offers to drive her home since she had taken the bus. Quinn accepts his offer and the drive back to her mother and stepfather's house is quiet but not as awkward as before.

Once Finn parks his pickup truck in front of the house, the awkward silence between them appears between them again.

"Here we are."

"Yeah," Quinn replies as she puts her hand on the door handle for a moment and hesitates in opening the door. Before she pulls the handle, she turns to face Finn and kisses him on the lips. "Thanks for the coffee tonight, Finn," she stammers as she pulls away with a blush on her cheeks once she realizes what she had just done. "I…I really should go now."

Finn's face is unreadable as he simply brushes a stray lock of hair from her face. "…Yeah," he replies quietly.

"Good night," she practically jumps out of his pickup truck and runs towards the house as he drives away. Once Quinn settles onto the bed in the guest room where she had been staying, she rubs her hands over her face. Honestly, she has no idea why she would go and kiss Finn and even asking him if he was single.

She and Finn had broken up because she had cheated with Puck and got pregnant as a result, but they had eventually sorted things out to be on speaking terms for the remainder of high school. And then there was the failed relationship with Puck and then college life, nursing life, and all these years that have gone by where everyone had lost track of each other and the second day that she's back in Lima, she kisses her first ex-boyfriend on the mouth at the end of a Totally-Not-A-Date-It-Was-Just-Coffee-At-Starbucks.

For crying out loud, Quinn Fabray is a grown woman with a full-time job and a busy life ahead of her and here she is, in her mother's guest room and fretting over the fact that she just kissed her ex-boyfriend from high school on the lips. Sleep didn't come well that night.

* * *

She doesn't sleep well for the next three days until Finn calls her to let her know that her car was ready. Gwen drops her off at the garage on her way to work and Quinn's nerves are very close in getting the best of her when Finn appears.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Your car's ready," Finn jerks his thumb towards the garage. "There was a lot of stuff that needed fixing but I got it all taken care of."

"Thanks," she replies as neutrally as possible. She wanted to talk to him about the kiss but she also wanted to get her car back. After she had paid Finn for the repairs and got her car keys back from him, she turns to him. "Finn...um…about that night…."

Finn's face is unreadable as he looks at her. He had been completely baffled at Quinn kissing him that night and tried to not think about it by focusing on work instead. Now here she is, in his garage and looking just as confused and nervous as he is.

"Finn," she starts again, "I really don't know what came over me that night and while we were talking over coffee, but I just want you to know that I honestly really do care about you and I don't know if we're still friends or even on speaking term after that." She pauses for breath. "I don't know if I even want a relationship right now because of everything else in my life, but I want us to be comfortable with each other again. I mean, we're adults."

He's quiet as her words sink in; while he's never been too bright, he can sort of understand where Quinn is coming from. They've had a long and complicated relationship ever since everything had changed between them in high school with Quinn getting pregnant. "Yeah," he replies. "I…I kind of want that too. Friends first, right?"

"Friends first; then maybe we'll see we can be more than friends. One day, right?"

He nods; they're both fully aware of the fact that with the courses that their lives were taking, it was next to impossible to even wedge in time to develop anything other than a distant friendship between them. Maybe another time in their future, they could try again and take a stab at an adult relationship. Or maybe that's just the way life works and they'll remain friends but nothing more. Or maybe it'll be something in between.

Quinn doesn't want to dwell on the matter anymore today; she thanks Finn for repairing her car and she drives home.

* * *

The last two days of Quinn's stay in Lima is spent repacking and rearranging her belongings and double-checking with her new apartment's community office that she's all squared away to move in. She spent many hours yelling at people over the phone and buying herself a lot of chocolate to sooth her stress.

When the day for her to leave for Philadelphia arrived, she could barely think. She had managed to get in lunch with her family and hug her goodbyes and promises of calling when she finally settled into her apartment; but something else still tugged at her mind as she pulled out of the driveway.

It wasn't until she was nearing the outskirts of town and the major interstate that she remembers realizes what had been bugging her. She quickly makes a detour to Finn's garage.

Finn's busy working on a minivan when Quinn walks up to the garage. He sees her from the corner of his eye and pauses. "Hey," he greets her.

"Hey," she replies. "I…" she pauses to gather her thoughts before speaking again. "I just wanted to drop by and say goodbye."

"Philly, right?" He asks as he wipes his dirty and greasy hands on his rags.

"Yeah," she replies as she pulls a slip of paper from her jacket pocket and gives it to him. "Here," she says. "It's my new phone number and address in Philly, and my email too because I'm too busy for Facebook nowadays. Maybe we can talk some more some time." Quinn's lips form a small hopeful smile as Finn skims the paper and tucks it into his shirt pocket.

Finn is quiet for a moment before he smiles at her. "Sure," he replies. "Anytime."

Quinn's smile widens and she kisses Finn on the cheek. "I'll let you know when I'm settled in Philly, okay?"

"Sure," Finn replies as he watches Quinn get back into her car and drive away. He sighs and then pulls the slip of paper out of his shirt pocket and studies it before heading back to work. He's not exactly sure what he should do with this new information that Quinn gave him, but he stores it away later that night on his computer and cell phone anyway because she had promised to contact him once she reached Philadelphia and he's going to hold her to that.

* * *

Two weeks later, the telephone rings.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's me." Quinn's sweet but tired voice greets him.

"Hey, you sound tired." Finn props the receiver under his chin as he grabs a soda to drink.

She chuckles. "I've been on my feet at work learning all the new rules at the hospital and then unpacking and everything. And I'm finally done with all that today. How have you been doing?"

"Nothing much," he replies. "Just working. Not much for a busy guy like me to do in Lima."

Quinn makes a yawning noise. "I totally know the feeling. I actually haven't been able to do much outside of work and getting my place straightened out. But it looks like it'll all work out soon."

They spent the next few hours talking about work and about adjusting to Philadelphia and other subjects. By the end of the conversation, Finn secretly buys himself a train ticket for the next Monday to Philadelphia.

* * *

These last few days at the hospital have really taken their toll on Quinn's energy; the first thing she does when she comes home is take a shower and then sleep. (Don't get her wrong, she wouldn't trade being a nurse for another job, but there are just some days at the hospital that really tests her convictions but in the end, her job is completely worth it.)

So the last thing on her mind when she wakes up from a particularly grueling shift is a phone call.

"'Lo?" She sleepily mumbles into her cell phone as she sprawls back in bed.

"Hey," Finn's voice greets her. "Did I wake you or something? Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine," she replies, sounding a bit more awake. "I was just waking up when the phone rang. So, how are you?"

"Good," he replies. "Um, I'm gonna need a ride from the train station though."

Quinn bolts up as the words "train station" sinks in. "Train station? Where are you, Finn?"

"Uh…." Finn trails off as he turns around to see which station he had gotten off at. He had forgotten his schedule where the train was going to drop him off, but luckily the conductors had been helpful in getting him straightened out and where to go. "I'm at the 30th Street station."

"30th Street?" Quinn parroted back. "Finn, are you in Philadelphia?" Oh, if this was true, she was going to throttle him.

Finn's voice sheepishly replied "Um, yes? Can I get a ride?"

"Oh, you are ridiculous sometimes, Finn Hudson," She replied with exasperation as she threw off the covers. "I'll be there in about half an hour." Once she told him to stay put at the station and hung up, Quinn went to wash up and get dressed so that she can pick Finn up from the station and yell at him for being so…Finn and taking a train all the way from Ohio to Philadelphia.

Once she got to the station, she saw Finn's tall frame wave at her from the street. She rolled her eyes once he got into her car and buckled up. "I can't believe you sometimes, Finn."

At least Finn had the good sense to look sheepishly guilty when he looked at her. "I kind of wanted it to be a surprise."

"Well, you got that right," She chuckles as she drives them back to her apartment. "You should have called me and told me that you were coming, Finn. You're lucky that today's Monday and I'm off on Monday; otherwise I would have told you to take the bus and wait for me at my place or somewhere near the hospital."

"But then it's not a surprise, then?" he rhetorically asked. "And I really wanted to see you. And I'd never been to Philly before."

"You've also never been on a train before," she adds with a smirk. Finn only grins back at her; it was true though. He had never been to Philadelphia, he had never ridden a train before, but most of all; he had wanted to see Quinn again. He had been lost in his own thoughts (how much horsepower can he squeeze into his supposed muscle car before it's called street illegal?) when Quinn speaks up again.

"Hey, do you want to grab something to eat? I'm kind of hungry."

"Huh?" Finn looks at her in confusion.

"I said do you want to go eat something?" she repeated.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied. Now that she reminded him, he was feeling a bit hungry. "I'm up for anything." Quinn nods and she pulls into the next sit-down chain place she sees. They order their food and sit in an awkward silence as they wait.

* * *

"So…" Quinn breaks the silence. "Why did you come, Finn? I mean, all the way here to Philly?"

"I had to see you," he replies. "I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't love you before. And I'd been okay with my life until you came back to Lima. I mean, I dated around after I broke up with Rachel, but….I don't know. You showed up at my garage and I'm kind of confused again if we're still friends or something." His shoulder slump a little as he talks.

Quinn's quiet and looking down on her lap as she listens to him and she nods when she looks back into his eyes. "Well, you're not the only one then. I thought we were okay with each other when we went our separate lives and then my car dies and there you were and I felt a bit weird about it. Did you know that after we graduated, Puck and I tried to work things out again? But just like you, I felt like I couldn't really keep the distance going because he was doing whatever he does and I was so busy with college that I had no time for him anymore. "

Puck had been furious at first when she decided to break things off with him after all they had been through in high school, but he had resigned defeat to their relationship when she broke it down to him about how it was next to impossible for her to keep the relationship going since all her time was being devoted to school. "I don't even know what happened to him after that," she admitted.

"He runs a bar in Sandusky," Finn replies, shrugging when Quinn looked at him in surprise. "I thought it was weird too but he's actually doing pretty good for himself. Sometimes I go over there for a drink and we'd talk."

"How is he? And before you ask, I'm just curious."

"Still the same old Puck, really," he replies. "But he has been seeing someone for the last four years or so. Kathy's really nice, she does massages at a spa or something and she helps Puck out at the bar sometimes."

Quinn smiles, "That's good to hear that he's starting to settle down. And to be honest Finn, I really did love you. But sometimes I felt that I wasn't good enough for you and that we were together because I was the cheerleader and you were the quarterback." She looks down at the food the waiter brought and picks at it with her fork. "I loved Puck too, but you know his reputation. He was exciting and rebellious and then that night happened and well, you know the rest. I never meant to hurt you, Finn. I didn't deserve you then and I don't if it's the same now."

"I kind of get it, I think," he replies. While he and Quinn had eventually worked out their differences in high school, he's still kind of pleased that she did keep a soft spot for him after all this time. "Maybe it was for the best or something. I still like you, Quinn."

Quinn smiles softly at him as they ate. "When my sister dropped me off at your garage that day, I was really surprised to see you. And then when we started talking again over coffee, those old feelings appeared again and I wasn't sure about how to deal with that." Her cheeks blush slightly as he returns his goofy smile at her. "But now that you're here, maybe we can work out this weirdness between us now."

Finn nods as they finish their food and order dessert. "Yeah," he says.

She beams.

* * *

It turns out that working out the awkward issues between them resulted in them trying out a real adult relationship for the first time and Finn staying over at her apartment because hotels are expensive and his return ticket back to Ohio was not for another three days.

'_Yeah_', Quinn thinks as she drapes a blanket over Finn's sleeping frame before she turns out the lights and curls up next to him, '_This could work._'

**xx the end xx**


End file.
